Local Heritage with Theus Mago

Music

Mexican producer Mateo González began his movements as Theus Mago back in 2014, an alias that serves his explorations into darker, atmospheric rhythms.

Prior to this his main musical outlet had been under his Bufi guise, seeing him make homes on Mexican labels like Electrique Music and Sicario, and later down the line on Duro, the label he co-founded with friend Moisees.

As Bufi his releases are still going strong, as are those under Theus Mago, be that individually or collaboratively. Over the last five years he's taken these creations to labels across the world; his solo efforts finding a home on Ombra International, Roam Recordings and Feines Tier, while his collaborations with artists like Moderna, Local Suicide and Ali X have charted on Kill The DJ, Side UP Works and Turbo.

With a few releases set to drop under both aliases, Mateo shares some of the sounds from his home country…

Follow Theus Mago. Check out his latest releases as Bufi and Theus Mago.

LISTEN

Miki - Soy Pobre

Nuevos Ricos was an influential Mexican record label/artist collective that was active in the early 2ks through illegal warehouse parties and amazing compilations. Some of the artists that came out of the label are now well known semi-pop acts that play all around the country in a regular basis (Silverio, MDYSSL), but it’s their chilango punky lo-budget electrocrash style what really made an impact on me.

Miki - Soy Pobre

Nuevos Ricos was an influential Mexican record label/artist collective that was active in the early 2ks through illegal warehouse parties and amazing compilations. Some of the artists that came out of the label are now well known semi-pop acts that play all around the country in a regular basis (Silverio, MDYSSL), but it’s their chilango punky lo-budget electrocrash style what really made an impact on me.
Nortec Collective: Terrestre - El Lado Oscuro De Mi Compadre

Tijuana almost feels like a different country for us chilangos (slang for people that lives in CDMX), but what this city and their people provided for the IDM scene 15 years ago was something truly unique and original that still resonates in my head.
El Escuadrón Del Ritmo - Las Cucarachas

We don’t have many documents of the new wave national scene, but it was there. The few things that are available on the web are like a treasure for some of us synth diggers, i.e. this very precarious recording of El Escuadrón del Ritmo in 1983.
Factor X La Tacha

There are two types of Mexicans: those that mimic Americans (or europeans, in the best case), and those who try to put some type of “mexicanity” into their creations. Both can be annoying, but if I have to chose I would stick with the later. Thanks to them we have things like this weird 1995 “R&S sound” infused techno anthem that talks about La Tacha (slang for E pills) and it’s uplifting attributes.
Jorge Reyes - Los Señores Del Tiempo

Most people, when they think about Mexico, they think about Aztecs and Mayans. There’s a lot of recordings of the music from these pre-hispanic cultures, but the truth is we don’t have a clear idea of what they really sounded like, simply because they didn’t have any notation music system back then that we know about. However, we do have the instruments that they used and some interpretations can be quite cool.